On the 27th January myself and Alex Hirtzel (freelance artist) visited Oliver Thomas Nursery School and Elmhurst Primary School to work with their Newham Family Learning Groups to deliver creative art workshops experimenting with Lazertran paper, silk, silk paints and fabric paints.

For these workshops, instead of using Delft tile designs, the ladies in the groups supplied me with images portraying their identity that I printed out at the museum and brought with me to the workshops. These pictures included fabric from their favourite clothes, favourite pieces of jewellery, photographs of themselves and images of places that they had visited. Workshop participants then transferred their images onto silk by ironing the transfer onto the silk and then wetting and peeling off the backing paper from the Lazertran. After this process participants were left with a piece of silk with their personal image on it. Participants then sketched designs to embellish their pieces of silk, taking inspiration from the Wallace Collection’s Dutch paintings and Asian woodblock patterns and used silk paints and fabric paints to apply their designs onto the silk squares in a variety of colours.

This was a really fun workshop and participants enjoyed learning how to use the Lazertran, silk paints and fabric paints and particularly liked the instant and visually exciting effects of the Lazertran and seeing their own images on the silk.

We planned and delivered this workshop due to the fact that participants will be working on silk for their final exhibition and will be using the same process to create their own artwork. We therefore wanted participants to experiment with using the Lazertran, silk paints and fabric paints before planning their final exhibition pieces so they could experience the types of techniques, motifs and materials they could incorporate into their artwork.

Here are some pictures of the workshop participants busy at work and the silk squares they produced.